Ashley Schaeffer: What instruments do you play and which did you start with?

Jason Reeves: I mainly play guitar and piano, and I started playing piano when I was five and guitar when I was 17, I think.

AS: Are you a self-taught guitarist, or did you take guitar lessons also?

JR: No, I never took guitar lessons. I kind of learned from my friends.

AS: At what point did you know music was your calling?

JR: I don’t know if it’s necessarily my calling. I just feel like I decided it was what I wanted to do when I was in high school, maybe when I was just finishing. Probably when I was around 18 I decided I really wanted to do it for real. But I don’t know if it’s necessarily my calling. It could be.

AS: Have you ever considered doing anything else?

JR: Yeah, for sure. I want to be a photographer, and I always wanted to be a writer before I did this, so I’m probably going to try to do that later on. I just want to go around and take pictures, so maybe I can do that too.

AS: So you’re an all around artist?

JR: I don’t know [laughs], maybe.

AS: Did you get any strong musical encouragement in your early years?

JR: Well, my parents were the ones that made me start taking lessons when I was five, and they never discouraged me to play anything. Whenever I would quit or start a new instrument, they’d always be real supportive, so my parents had a lot to do with that.

AS: What artists do you feel have influenced your style the most?

JR: There are a lot. James Taylor and Bob Dylan, for the most part. I’d have to split it between them. They’re the two main reasons I started doing this in the first place. From there, it gets to be a lot of people. There are just way too many to list.

AS: From looking at your MySpace page, it’s obvious you’ve got a pretty big fan following. As a rising musician, what’s the most interesting encounter you’ve had with a fan, on or offline?

JR: Oh man… I don’t know. There are some weird ones. I’d say running into people in weird places in public is always strange. But I don’t know if I can pull out specific things right now. For the most part, it’s not that weird, and a lot of the time I go about everything normally.

AS: You have a lot of really powerful and touching songs on the album that deal with relationships. When you write a song about someone specific, is it obvious to them that it’s about them?

JR: I have a feeling sometimes it is, but a lot of times I’m not sure they would know because I might not write about it in the year. I might write about it quite a ways down the line, and it might be pretty hard to assume that. But I don’t actually know because I don’t ask the people I write about if they knew.

AS: What are some of the main reasons that you’re making music?

JR: Well, the main reason that I do it is because I love it. Out of everything that I have done and still do, it’s my favorite — whether it’s recording or writing or playing live, so that’s probably the main reason. The other reason is because of the response that people give and the interaction that a live show has. It’s pretty powerful. So that’s one of the things that keeps a lot of musicians going.

AS: Do you think you get more out of the writing and recording process or out of performing?

JR: That’s hard to say. What you’re getting from both of them is completely different. It’s hard to compare. They’re two completely different kinds of things. I’d say they’re both equally powerful.

AS: How would you describe your songwriting process?

JR: I would describe it as completely random and absurd. It’s never the same, and the songs kind of come out of nowhere.

AS: Do you tend to write the lyrics or the music first?

JR: Usually the music first, but not all the time. Sometimes the words, but usually they have to be changed once the music comes into play anyway, because it’s hard to fit words to music. That’s the trick. You can’t do it when you’re just writing the words, unless you get lucky.

AS: Which song on the album would you say you put the most emotion and energy into?

JR: I don’t know… “Gasoline” might have the most energy, and “Just Friends.” Those two, probably.